


Fire and Ice

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Fireside Tales [19]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-18
Updated: 2013-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-05 02:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1088511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Flames roar in his heart and his mind, and he orders the pyre to be made so they may surround his flesh as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire and Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Denethor, at the end of his life  
> Prompt: Ignite  
> Alternate Universe: Canon

He knows the people around him think of him as cold, and colder still since the death of Finduilas, and he knows they are right. There is nothing of fire to be ignited in his breast again, stolen away with his beloved to be kept beyond the reach of Shadow. Perhaps some pale echo of a spark for Boromir, but even that is nothing compared to the memory of what he felt before Finduilas died. He prefers it that way, for it makes him harder to reach.

But even that pale spark is enough, in the end, to catch at him, to remind him that even the love for his son will be turned against him. So he pushes Faramir away, so that thinnest of threads might not be cut with the same jagged blade as his other loves. Fears that it is, when they bring back his youngest pale and bloodless. He cannot hear a breath, cannot find a heartbeat, and feels something in him shatter that he'd thought turned to ice.

Flames roar in his heart and his mind, and he orders the pyre to be made so they may surround his flesh as well. Even when the traitor and the wizard steal away his son's body, he refuses to leave, holding the instrument of the Enemy in his hands as the fire ignites once more. Consuming what is left of him, and letting his soul free.

**Author's Note:**

> This is not a sane Denethor, but it is a Denethor whose madness lies closer to book canon than to movie canon. How he's mad, and some of the effects, are inspired by reading [Hands of the King](http://www.henneth-annun.net/stories/chapter.cfm?stid=1073), by Anglachel, though I have tried not to reference specifics from her story in this.


End file.
